007; sometimes overthinking leads to disaster Naturally, the bike choosing that moment to lurch several feet downward hadn't been on Sirius' immediate plans of "fun adventures"; however, after the initial shock was over, he let out a whoop of delight.

"Calm down, Prongs!" he announced cheerfully - well, less announced and more screamed at the top of his lungs - his mind already beginning to ponder the various outcomes of this particular predicament. They were already beginning to fall, picking up speed with every passing moment at that, but almost instantaneously, Sirius judged that they would either a) make a nice, deep, charred hole in the Lupins' front lawn; b) die a fiery, painful death; or c) James would save the day in some humourous way.

Because Sirius had been best friends with James Potter for so long - and also because he saw his best friend whip his wand out of his robes out of the corner of his eye, he decided not to waste time panicking. "... and HOW delusional are you?! Evans HATES you!"

Opening his mouth to tease his friend again, Sirius suddenly realized he could see the ground with alarming clarity, even in the dark. He also realized that they were, in fact, headed straight toward the roof of the Lupin resident. "MIND THAT ROOF!" he cried, whipping his own wand out, lips moving to utter a spell that he knew would come too late, they were going to crash---

006; capslock is apparently hereditary James couldn't really argue with Sirius about not knowing the clock was there, because he hadn't known it was either. Still, he felt that crashing headlong into muggle culture wasn't exactly the most effective way of becoming acquainted with it. He kept his gaze pinned on the Lupins' house, hoping the bike wouldn't swerve dangerously towards it.

"Coming from anyone other than you, the words 'I know what I'm doing' would probably inspire hope. From you, they just make me worry more," James said. Or rather, he would have said, and he was about halfway through when the bike started to plummet, the early morning suddenly all too quiet without the roar of the engine (which, though once irritating, would now have been a rather comforting sound).

One hand still holding on for dear life, he reached into his robes and pulled his wand out, ready to transfigure trees into pillows, or throw hovering spells at the bike or their own bodies, or possibly try to convince the Lupin house to get up and move out of harm's path.

"IF I DIE BEFORE LILY EVANS CONFESSES HER UNDYING LOVE, PADFOOT, I SWEAR TO MERLIN--!" The threat went unfinished, but really, it was better that way. Sirius did have a very active imagination, after all.

005; because nothing ever goes smoothly. Sirius snorted indignantly. "Well how was I supposed to know about a giant ruddy clock in the middle of town? Those Muggles - they think of the most absurd ideas!" He was about to go off on a rant of the "why would anyone (Muggle or not) need a giant clock" variety, but decided he'd spare James, instead swerving the enchanted bike to the side to avoid a low-hanging cloud.

"And, for that matter," Sirius continued, turning the bike again to circle the Lupins' house - mentally calculating the best way to go about landing without: a) killing them both; or b) giving the Lupins' some reason to do the job instead - "I know exactly what I'm doing! Calm down, Prongs!" The job would have been made a million times easier if there weren't so many damn trees, but Sirius couldn't exactly change that.

He leaned forward, nose peeking over the handlebars as he tipped the bike - stomach dropping as they abruptly swung lower, close enough to make out the tiny details of the patchworked fields, snaking roads, and little puffs of smoke wafting out of the Lupins' chimney. "See!" he yelled cheerfully over the roaring engine (which seemed to grow louder as they flew lower - odd.)

"Only a few moments now!"

And that's when the engine sputtered and started to give up, the bike abruptly jolting mid-air.

004; in which there are over 9000 reasons for doubt James felt his confidence level sink as Sirius asked why he should doubt him. Immediately a long list of reasons popped into James' mind, but he chose not to voice them. This high up in the air, it probably wasn't a good idea to agitate the one driving the flying motorcycle.

"You're right, how could I ever doubt the great Sirius Black?" he asked, keeping the sarcasm in his voice to a minimum -- well, as much of a minimum as he could, anyway. James didn't think he could honestly say such a thing without any sarcasm. It just wouldn't be natural.

"Your navigation skills?" he repeated incredulously, gazing down at their friend's house. Everything was still quiet down there; no doubt they were sleeping, as most rational wizard-folk were given to doing at such an unreasonable hour. "It was your navigation skills that nearly had us become decorations on the side of that big muggle clock!" James sighed. "Just make sure you don't navigate a new window into the Lupins' house, will you?" He laughed; he meant no real offense, it was just that he viewed an opportunity to make fun of Sirius far too important to ignore. They always had a way of somehow coming through any bad situation relatively unscathed.

He wondered how the lawn would fare after an enchanted motorbike made a landing. Maybe they could convince the Lupins to build a sort of landing strip for future visits... once they got over the shock of what was sure to be a rude awakening, anyway.

003; of the almighty reliable house of black To be 100% honest, Sirius himself was beginning to have nasty little doubts about his own driving abilities. Granted, being Sirius Black, he was naturally good at pretty much anything--women, Quidditch, looking handsome at any given time of the day, etc. etc.--; however, the countryside below was looking very daunting as the enchanted bike zoomed overhead.

Naturally, he responded by looking over his shoulder and fixing his best friend with the most endearing of smiles. "Of course I can get us there! Why should you doubt me, Prongs?" Mentally, Sirius could check off about a million different occurances when he had given his friends reasonable belief to doubt his own abilities (usually when he tried to give his friends dating advice; even moreso when said dating advice was in relation to one Lily Evans). However, when they were flying so high that the trees below looked more like off-green dots than anything, he figured it wasn't a good time to panic.

He was a Black, after all. After years of being the odd one out in the family, Sirius was pretty damn good at being reckless and somehow pulling through. Accelerating and flying a little higher, he brought the enchanted bike flying over the hill and let out a delighted whoop when he spotted a little grey house -- tiny, at this height, looking more like a child's toy than anything else -- surrounded by a ring of trees. Though they had only visited their friend Remus a few times (most of their holiday reunions were held at the Potters' due to sheer convenience), he instantly recognized it.

Of course, there was always the issue of landing and not smashing into a tree, or anything else as equally nasty (like one of those silly Muggle telephone wires), but Sirius was quite confident that wouldn't be a problem. In fact, his mind was already jumping ahead -- he wondered exactly how he would explain all this away to the Lupin family. Hm.

002; maps are not useful in the dark. or upside-down. With one hand holding a battered map of the English countryside, and the other clutching onto the flying motorcycle for dear life, James Potter was reflecting on how flying on a broomstick was far more enjoyable than this; at the very least, on a broomstick, he was in control. Here, he was entirely dependent on Sirius' dubious driving skills to get them from Point A (in this case, his family's home) to Point B (Remus' house) in the appropriate number of pieces. With the sky brightening, he realized that he'd been holding the map upside-down for some time, and flipped it over hastily, turning his squinting gaze from the map to the hill Sirius had referred to.

“It looks familiar,” he said, yelling to be heard over the noise of the engine and the wind rushing past them. He wasn’t sure which town was below them, so he folded the map haphazardly and stuffed it into one of the pockets in his robe. It wouldn’t be of much use to them unless they could get their bearings. The town far below was beginning to come to life for another day, and James wanted to be out of sight before any muggles started peering out of their windows up at the sky. “Can you get there without killing us both?” he asked, shifting slightly so that he was holding on with both hands.

Maybe he could convince Moony to let them crash—no, stay—there for a few nights. As thrilling as breaking this many rules was (flying unescorted in the dead of night, on an illegally charmed motorcycle, without even telling anyone they were going... It was all worth it, though. He knew Remus would have been getting lonely by himself all summer, and just imagining his reaction when he saw them tugged the corners of James’ mouth up in a mischievous smile), he didn’t think he was prepared for the flight back. As unlikely as it was, he hoped Sirius would let him drive on the way back.

Whether they stayed for a week, a night, or an hour, he was sure that he and Sirius would get a very spirited lecture from his parents, probably involving all manner of threats (despite how he tried to hide it, both teens knew that the Potter patriarch was far too amused at their antics to actually follow through on any of the threats). James, for one, did not enjoy being lectured, and felt that there was quite a lot of sense in delaying the inevitable.

001; visiting remus. Dawn was already breaking, the darkness giving way to faint light in the horizon; soon the sun would rise over the hills. Sirius frowned at the thought- it was hard to see, but judging by his calculations, they were currently several hundred feet over a small city. It wouldn't do, for the Muggles to look up and see a large motorcycle flying overhead. They had already gotten lucky, with it being a dark night, and he wasn't sure if that luck would hold up.

"Oi, how much further?" he called over his shoulder to his best friend James, trying to speak over the sound of the engine roaring. They were flying - or trying to, at least - to the house of one Remus Lupin, but Sirius was beginning to suspect that maybe they hadn't thought this one through. James' parents had bestowed him with a magical, flying motorcycle for his birthday and well... at least they were putting it to good use!

Nevermind the fact that they had been driving nearly all night, it was almost impossible to see, and they had nearly collided with high-flying birds on more than one occasion. James had taken to complaining about how reckless a flyer Sirius was - he would purposely speed up and swerve about wildly in retaliation - and now that the initial exhileration had worn off, Sirius was starting to get sick of driving.

Still, Sirius suspected that they would have a very good laugh about the entire adventure once their feet were firmly on the ground; that, and the mental image of the look on Remus' face when they landed on his front lawn was enough to keep his spirits up. He accelerated again, and they sped over the city, passing into the countryside around it.